We’ve been invited to mark many anniversaries this year.

It’s 80 years since the outbreak of World War Two and 70 years since the Soviet Union tested its first atomic missile.

It’s 60 years since rebels led by Fidel Castro took power in Cuba and Barbie dolls went on sale.

And it was 10 years later that humans landed on the moon and troops were deployed on the streets of Northern Ireland, at the start of what were rather understatedly called The Troubles.

But there’s another 50th anniversary this year that has received less attention. And it falls exactly three weeks from tomorrow.

On October 5 1969 the first episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus was broadcast

Considering World War Two, nuclear weapon tests and The Troubles weren’t exactly a barrel of laughs, this one deserves to be commemorated. We should take Eric Idle’s advice and always look on the bright side of life.

I would suggest marking it with some repeats on the terrestrial TV channels, not tucked away on cable or satellite. New generations could be introduced to them and older ones will be reminded how funny they are.

In fact a slot on Sunday evenings might alleviate the gloom that imminent Monday mornings bring.

I know that not everyone enjoys Monty Python. If, as some critics complain, it looks rather dated today, that’s only because so many comedians have been imitating it over the last half century.

The term “alternative comedy”, in the UK at least, usually describes material that avoids racist and sexist jokes or otherwise makes fun of minorities.

But I think it could be used to describe Monty Python. There can hardly be anything more alternative than sketches without punchlines – which was a deliberate policy of theirs.

So a sketch would conclude with Graham Chapman in a colonel’s uniform, sternly declaring: “Stop this! It’s silly! Let’s have something decent and British.”

Or there would be a shot of a mountain top or an empty beach, where the camera would suddenly home in on John Cleese, dressed in a dinner suit, sitting at a desk, and announcing: “And now for something completely different…”

There had been daft comedy before, of course. The Goon Show would have been an obvious example.

But it took Monty Python to come up “the Ministry of Silly Walks” – not just the silly walks themselves but the idea that there was a government department devoted to them.

Or the Spanish Inquisition suddenly bursting into a suburban living room, announcing: “No-one expect the Spanish Inquisition.” They then threaten tortures such as “the rack”, which turns out to be a dish-drying rack, or “the cushions”, where the victim is prodded with two soft cushions.

If they don’t work the inquisitors resort to “the comfy chair”, which the victim is made to sit in.

However often I see it I still laugh at the dead parrot sketch, and the very idea that a pet shop would try to sell a dead bird, and claim that it’s just resting.

It’s a Norwegian Blue, Michael Palin asserts, and it’s not dead, it’s “pining for the fjords”.

Whether or not you find Monty Python funny, you have to admire the kind of imagination that comes up with it.

The comedy careers of the team didn’t end with Monty Python. Terry Jones and Michael Palin went on to create Ripping Yarns, while John Cleese went on to write and star in Fawlty Towers, easily the funniest sit com ever in the history of TV. There have been other good ones but nothing before or since comes anywhere near.

We might imagine that Monty Python has entered into the national consciousness and everyone would be aware of it. But one prime minister missed it completely.

Another of this year’s anniversaries is 40 years since Margaret Thatcher’s first election win.

When the Liberal Democrats adopted a yellow bird as their symbol, one of her speechwriters came up with a section in which she would poke fun at it by quoting the dead parrot sketch: “This parrot is no more, it has shuffled off its mortal coil and gone to join the choir invisible. This is an ex-parrot.”

She couldn’t see why it was funny nor knew where it came from.

When it was explained it was a quote from Monty Python, she asked: “This Monty Python, is he one of us?”